CAR CAPS & CAT CALLIGRAPHY

Uncommon ideas and an equally unusual use of type mark a pair of new campaigns from Chiat/Day/Toronto and the team of art director Richard Mirabelli and writer/creative director Peter McHugh.

For Nissan Canada, three-page ads for the Infiniti J30 and Q45, themed "Go your own way," open with a car-less spread of pure type design. "Most luxury car advertising is a 'glory shot' and a headline, and all the elements are quite interchangeable," says McHugh. "We wanted a look that positioned the car as something different-most Infiniti owners are in it purely for self-gratification," not BMW-style status statements, he explains. Designed on the Mac in very "normal" Helvetica, this is the first stage of a unified look for Infiniti promotions, McHugh adds; everything from direct mail to POP to the upcoming TV will conform to the new style.

A more radical departure for the Metro Toronto Zoo features hand-drawn headline type and what might be called maul humor: a series of posters pictures a tiger who talks candidly about his craving for human flesh ("Here, human human human ..." is a typical headline.) "The idea is this is what it would look like if a tiger had rudimentary printing skills," says McHugh. When budget limitations ruled out the Mac, the team experimented with some 75 variations of their carnivorous face, drawn by Mirabelli in India ink with a wax pencil overlay. The body copy is Scotty, a digital font from Chicago's T-26.